Designer delighted by Titanic work

Alan Grimason, an award winning Belfast designer has retired on a high after his already famous shiny cladding was added to the walls of the Titanic building.

His cladding covers the multi-million pound visitor attraction that is shaping up to become an iconic building in Belfast.

“It was my swan song,” he said.

“I am delighted with it, absolutely delighted. It’s a great statement compared to any other project I’ve seen around the world and any other thing I’ve been involved with.”

Mr Grimason won the contract to manufacture the cladding from international competition when he was the design director at Spanwall, the Carryduff company.

However, he doesn’t think that enough has been made about the local companies who have had an input into the building’s eye catching designs.

“It’s a shame that in all the things that have gone on and all the things about being ‘made in Belfast’ there hasn’t been one mention about the wall cladding being designed and manufactured in Belfast,” he said.

Mr Grimason is a specialist designer who has worked on many projects around the world including the British Airways buildings at Heathrow, Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium and the Kensington Oval cricket ground.

But he admitted that the Titanic Belfast contract was the one that he had wanted the most.

“Being in Belfast made it special,” he said. “We put an enormous amount of effort into it initially, we wanted to be involved in it being in Belfast and we’re a Belfast company.”